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NY, History and Genealogy.
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Compiled
from materials furnished by Chares Delamater VAIL. L. H. D., by whom
all rights are reserved, also revised and corrected by him.

As
a bit of earth, Geneva, as seen today, has much to plume itself
upon, but in the early days the coign of vantage of Geneva as a
place was not so much its beautiful surroundings as the fact that it
shared with Bath the honor of being the gateway to the Genesee
country, and by the Genesee country is meant here no merely the
geographical valley of the Genesee river, but, in a larger, freer
sense then current, the entire portion of the Empire state from
Seneca lake to lake Erie, a country which, coming suddenly to he
attention of the world through Sullivan's Raid in 1779, at once
dazzled its imagination as a new earthly paradise and to this day
remains a magnet of undiminished attraction - a country to which, if
traditions may be believed, no less a one than WASHINGTON once made
a flying visit with his friend, Colonel William FITZHUGH, to verify
its charm - a legend worthy to be true, even it it be not
so.

As
already stated, the early coign of vantage of Geneva was that it
shared with Bath the honor of being the gateway to the Genesee
country, but happily for Geneva and unhappily for Bath, it was not a
case of sharing equally. To the coveted Genesee country, there
were, it is true, in the early time but two approaches from the
seaboard, one from the Hudson river by waterways to Geneva, the
other from the Chesapeake bay by waterways to Bath; but since to the
bulk of the seaboard population sighing for new demesnes the
approach form the Hudson river was the more convenient, it resulted
that practically Geneva was the gateway to the Genesee country, and
further, that as between Bath and Geneva the star of empire never
took its way beyond Geneva.

Fortunate
in its geographical situation and surroundings, Geneva was equally fortunate
in the exceptional character of its early settlers as a body - a peculiarity
for good which came not to Geneva only, but in differing degrees to
all the old towns of the Genesee country. The circumstances
attending the settlement, hap-hazard, on lands owned by the State,
without any attempt whatever at sifting or selection; contrariwise,
it was a case of organized settlement under great proprietary, to
whom the character as well as the number of the settlers mattered,
and to whom the same time rapidity of settlement was a consideration
of moment.

It
must be remembered that, while by the celebrated convention of
December 16, 1786, held at Hartford, Connecticut, by the State of
New York and Massachusetts, to settle their rival territorial claims
under their Colonial charters, the rights of sovereignty over that portion
of the State of New York west of the meridian of the 82nd milestone
in the boundary line between New York and Pennsylvania, i.e., over
the Genesee country, was reserved to the State of New York, the fee
simple, together with the right of pre-emption or first purchase
from the native Indians of the soil of the same, was given to the
State of Massachusetts; and that subsequently the State of
Massachusetts, not caring to interest itself as proprietary in any
plans for disposing of the lands of the Genesee country to actual
settlers, sold its pre-emption rights, April 1, 1788, to tow of its
citizens, Oliver PHELPS and Nathaniel GORHAM, representing an association.
This passed the lands of Western New York from State
proprietaryship to the proprietaryship of private individuals
and the advantages that naturally follow private ownership and
management.

The
intimate particulars of the creation of the Phelps and Gorham
proprietaryship over the Genesee country, and how 2 years later, in
1790 and 1791, this proprietary ship passed to Robert MORRIS, and
how, April 11, 1792, that portion of this

proprietaryship
lying between Seneca lake and the Genesee river passed under the
name of the "Genesee tract" to Sir William PULTENEY and the
Pulteney Associates, it is not pertinent to recount in this
connection; nor is it pertinent to pass in review the various
proprietary ships which later arose in the western half of the
Genesee country, by purchase from Robert MORRIS or from the MORRIS
estate. It is pertinent however, or at least it will gratify a
laudable curiosity, to fix the first cost of the territory which
today constitutes the city of Geneva, being 2,400 acres more or
less. To Massachusetts, for the right of pre-emption of the
lands of the Genesee county, Phelps and Gorham paid, or contracted
to pay, $1,000,000, being an average per acre of about 12 cents; and
to the native Indians, in satisfaction of their claims on the
"Genesee tract" in which Geneva is located, $12,000, being
an average per acre of about half a cent. If these figures are
correct, the first cost of the territory now included in the city of
Geneva, was but $300!!

The First Settlers

The first
proprietaries, Phelps and Gorham, 1788-1790, did not content
themselves with efforts to secure acceptable settlers from the
eastern portion of New York State only, or from Pennsylvania and
New Jersey, the States geographically nearest, but being
Massachusetts men made special efforts to secure settlers from
Massachusetts and from New Englandgenerally, and the roll of early settlers in the
"Genesee tract" shows many names from that portion of
our country.But the
proprietaryship of Phelps and Gorham, two years, was too short for
any particularly significant results to be accomplished.Of these first proprietaries, however, Oliver PHELPS and Nathaniel GORHAM, it will ever be the historian's privilege
and duty to record that both were men of elevated character and
marked intelligence, and in particular of Mr. PHELPS that
in all business matters he was conspicuously remarkable for
capacity, energy, and shrewdness, and that throughout the
territory embraced in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase his memory
has been cherished with profound respect, and that the system of
land survey into townships and ranges, organized by him in
Canandaigua in 1789, was afterwards, with slight modification,
adopted by the United States government.

Under the next
proprietary, Robert MORRIS, 1790-1792, no special efforts
at actual settlement within the "Genesee tract" seem to
have been made, as Mr. MORRIS had apparently purchased the
great domain for speculative purposes only, but though during this
proprietaryship the work of settlement was not pushed, it did not
by any means cease, settlers continuing to come from geographical
sections brought into touch with the "Genesee tract" by
Phelps & Gorham.

When, however, in
1792 Sir William PULTENEY, representing the Pulteney
Associates, became proprietary of the "Genesee tract", a
new and memorable chapter began in the settlement of the country
which had so recently been thrown open to the knowledge of the
world.There appeared
on the scene, as an agent of Sir William PULTENEY and the
Pulteney Associates, Captain Charles WILLIAMSON, a
Scotchman by birth, an Englishman by adoption, an American by
naturalization, a Bostonian by marriage, but above all a man of
genius, a man of extraordinary energy and resource, peculiarly
fitted to promote large enterprises, even if he was to an extent
over-sanguine of results and prodigal in expenditures to achiever
the determined end.Immediately, by advertisement, by publications, by
personal visits to important centers, and by correspondence, Captain
WILLIAMSON with masterly tact concentrated attention abroad as
well as at home on the new paradise.Especially he utilized with great success the interest in
the Genesee country which had been kindled by the very laudatory
reports of that country which had been spreading in every
direction since the return of Sullivan's army from its triumphant
but devastating raid through the land of the Senecas to the
Genesee river, in 1779.In
no long time it resulted that on both sides of the Atlantic and on
this side in Maryland and Virginia, as well as in the Eastern
States, well-to-do families became interested, and soon the
"Genesee tract" was invaded, so to speak, by ladies and
gentlemen, many of whom came with their servants and slaves.But the invaders were resolute men and high spirited women,
and the terrors and hardships of subduing a wilderness did not
affright them or drive them back.They came into the wilderness to make it blossom like the
rose and they stayed and triumphed.

A Social Center

But more remarkable
even than the presence of a certain number of families of culture
and prominence in Geneva at its very beginning, is the extent to
which Geneva became and still is a center for families of that
class, and the cumulative effect it has had in lifting the town of the
whole place, and in making Geneva a cultured home of industry and
order and prosperity, as well as of letters and the gentle
arts. When passing in review the century of events in Geneva,
one is struck with the high character of the things attempted and
achieved by its professional men, and its captains of industry.

Quite as striking
as the number of Geneva's families of culture and prominence, is the
extent to which in the history of Geneva they have been constant and
continuing forces. It is to be regretted that a table prepared
to illustrate this peculiarity and to exhibit the historic families
of Geneva, in groups as determined by birth and marriage combined,
is too long to be incorporated in this historic sketch, but a few
words by way of summary may be allowed. Altogether there is a
total of 28 groups, with 152 families, not counting any family
twice, the various ROSES, for example, who are related, counting as
only one family. Of these groups, 8 began before 1800, four
between 1800 and 1810, three between 1810 and 1820, four between
1820 and 1830, four between 1830 and 1840; the remainder, excluding
the present generation (five), at various dates between 1840 and
1870. The largest of the groups, is the LAWSON group,
beginning 1796 with Jacob W. HALLETT and including 21 different
families, among which are, for example, the familiar names of ROSE,
NICHOLAS, DOX, BOGERT, GALLAGHER, MELLEN, CAMMANN and
PATTERSON. Besides the historic families in groups, one finds
also about he same number of prominent single or unrelated families,
the grouped and ungrouped families making a total that is certainly
remarkable in any place the size of Geneva.

Religious
Characteristics pg
335

The religious
characteristics presented by Geneva are quite as remarkable as its
social characteristics. In the earliest period, strange as it
may seem, the Episcopalians in numbers and influence practically
balanced the Presbyterians; a phenomenon not paralleled probably in
any other part of the country, but explicable by reference to the
sources whence the original population of Geneva was drawn.
Again, and this coincidence should be writ large, for it is quite as
striking as the fact just noted, Geneva is relatively the strongest
center in the United States of both the Episcopalians and the
Presbyterians. And last of all, but perhaps more remarkable
and more complimentary to Geneva than either of the two facts
already mentioned, the total membership of the Christian bodies in
Geneva compared with the total population shows as large a
percentage as is show anywhere else in our country and possibly
larger.

A unique characteristic
remains to be noticed. Years and years ago, Geneva was
conspicuous for its large number of retired clergymen, also its
large number of unmarried women and a Geneva wit won immortality by
this epigram: "Ah! Yes, Geneva is equally the saints' retreat
and the old maids paradise!" This epigram is introduced
not in the way of veiled disparagement of a certain class of
Geneva's clergy and a certain class of Geneva's women, but to give a
legitimate occasion for emphasizing the fact that in the long
history of Geneva, nothing is lovelier than the shining record of
its unmarried women, not only in acts of Christian charity and
beneficence, but in lives of high and noble example, and nothing
more wholesome or gratifying than the quiet but elevated influence
of its retired clergy.

Chronicle of
Geneva

I come not to the
chronicle of Geneva. The events before 1800 are, in a way, but
a prelude to the events after 1800, and are comprised in two
formative periods, a shorter and a longer, both full charges with
occurrences of moment, but each subject to a domination entirely
different from the other. The shorter period embraces the years
from 1787 to 1792, inclusive

Period 1787 to
1792

The story of the
civic life of Geneva opens in June, 1787, with "a solitary
log house and that not finished, in habited by one JENNINGS".This house, soon enlarged by Jennings, Elark JENNINGS,
into a tavern and presumably the first tavern within Geneva's
borders, stood a little south of what is now the junction of
Washington and Exchange streets, on what was then the Indian trail
leading southward to Kashong from round the lake, the trail
breaking over the top of the shore-bank at or about the spot where
now stands Trinity church.Within
a year several huts or log house, bark-covered, arose alone this
street or trail, among them one bark covered structure, more
ambitious that the rest, the framed tavern and trading
establishment erected by the so-called Lessee company in the
summer or early autumn of 1787 and occupied by Dr. Caleb BENTON
as representative of that company.This straggling line of bark-covered structures, overtopped
by the lank-bank, formed the distant prospect of Geneva for the
first wayfarers from the east into the Genesee country, a contrast
to the distant prospect of the beautiful and busy Geneva of the
20th century.

As the gateway of
the Genesee country, and to an extent identical geographically
with Kanadesaga, the famous but fallen capital of the Senecas, and
at the same time as the headquarters of the Lessee company, i.e.,
the New York Genesee Land Company, a company organized early in
the first year of Geneva, 1787, Geneva had, of course, from the
beginning a floating population of varying numbers, a population
made up mostly of explorers, land speculators, Indian traders, and
of pioneers passing through to the westward; but, along with these
and such as these, there were those who had come to Geneva to
become permanent settlers, or who, arriving there, had found it to
their interest to become such.The number of permanent settlers in Geneva during the
shorter formative period grew, but not rapidly, for in 1790,
Geneva is spoken of as a place of only ten or twelve families.

The Earliest
Comers pg 337 - 338

No complete list
exits, nor probably can ever be made, of the various persons who
were in Geneva for a longer or shorter time during the first
formative period ( 1787-1792), either as temporary residents or
permanent settlers, but the following confessedly imperfect list,
gathered from Mr. CONOVER's historical papers, is not
without interest and value:

Elark JENNINGS,
at once first innkeeper and first recorded inhabitant; Peter
BARTLE, Indian trader; Horatio JONES, Indian
interpreter; Asa RANSOM, maker of Indian trinkets; Gilbert
R. BERRY, silversmith; John WIDNER, farmer at the foot
of the lake and ferry keeper; Daniel EARL and Solomon
EARL, his son, farmers over the outlet; Captain Timothy
ALLYN and one HICKOX, merchants; Jacob and Joseph
BACKENTOSE, tailors, who by their skill created in time a
State-wide ambition to wear clothes by a "Geneva
tailor;" one BUTLER, the first carpenter; James
TALLMADGE, a blacksmith and Elisha TALLMAGE, merchant; Ezra
PATTERSON, inn keeper, presumably on site of the Carrollton; Joshua
FAIRBANKS, inn keeper, site not certain; Dr. Caleb BENTON,
representative of the Lessee company, with head quarters in their
tavern and trading establishment; Colonel Seth REED and Peter
RYCKMAN, first holders of important land patents in Geneva; Major
Benjamin BARTON, Major Adam HOOPS, Jacob HART, Joseph ANNIN,
William (?) JENKINS, surveyors; Dr. William ADAMS, first
physician and a little later Dr. ANDREWS; and land owners
among others as follows: Jerome LOOMIS, from Lebanon,
Connecticut; Major Sanford WILLIAMS; Captain Jonathan WHITNEY;
Roger NOBLE from Sheffield, Massachusetts; James LATTA,
from New Windsor, New York; Solomon WARNER, William ANSLEY, a
Mr. RINGER , a Mr. CRITTENDEN, owner of the farm on which were
the Old Castle and the Indian mound; Phineas STEVENS, at
the Charles BEAN's place; while at Kashong were settled Joseph
POUDRE and Dominique DE BARTZCH, the latter a man of
great influence at the time in this region.Other names of this period are: SISSON, VAN DUZEN,
BUTLER, JACKSON, GRAHAM, and SCOTT, the last two being
merchants who came in June, 1793.To this list it would be a pleasure to add, were it known,
the name of him who during the first formative period introduced
into Geneva the manufacture of brick, for Dr. COVENTRY in
his Journal records, under date of July 3rd, 1792, that
he went to Geneva and bought 300 bricks at $4 per thousand, a
price which precludes the supposition that the bricks he bought
were imported bricks.

Besides the
taverns or inns already mentioned, there were at least three other
early inns, but it is not certain whether they came into existence
in the first formative period or sometime later; the famous MC
CORMICK tavern on the southwest corner of North and Exchange
streets, the first in on the Kirkwood site, and TUTTLE's
tavern just south of the Charles BEAN place.But in those early days every man's house was in a way an
inn, for no man might refuse rest and refreshment to the wearied
traveler, especially for a reasonable consideration; and besides
and behind this humane impulse was the ever present and the ever
active desires to exchange news, for in Geneva, just waking into
life, this was before newspapers and stages and any fixed mail
service, and of course before telegraphs or telephones or
railroads or steamers or canal packets, still waiting for their
predestined inventors.To
this first period, but possibly to the beginning of the next
period, belongs General H.W. DOBBIN, land owner, a soldier
of the Revolution who enjoyed, and justly, marked local celebrity.